Apparatus for the transportation of bulk goods



July 6, 1954 F. BOCK APPARATUS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF BULK GOODS Filed June 26, 1950 Fig. 1

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July 6, 1954 F. BOCK 2,682,751

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July 6, 1954 F. BOCK APPARATUS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF BULK GOODS 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 26, 1950 Inventor:

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APPARATUS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF BULK GOODS Filed June 26, 1950 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Fig. 13

July 6, 1954 F. BOCK APPARATUS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF'BULK GOODS '7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed June 26, 1950 July 6, 1954 F. BOCK APPARATUS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF BULK GOODS '7 Sheets-Sheet '7 Filed June 26, 1950 Patented July 6, 1954 APPARATUS FOR'THE TRANSPORTATION OF-"BULK' GOODS ErannBock, Koln-Bayenthal, Germany Application June 26, 1950; Serial No. 170,330

Claims-1 priority-, application Germany April 17, 1950 (Cl: (ii-67 2 Claims. 1.

The invention relates -,to apparatus for the improvement. of the transportation of preferably hulk goods, i. e. coal, .ore, etc. by ship, rail'or road..

The. invention especially relates to apparatus for the transportation of bulk goodsby which the goods remain in thesamefioatable transport container, though the method o fjthe transportation-being. changed. The object of the inven-. tion concerned is. apparatus for, the transfer of fioatable, but notnavigable. transport containers from rail or road to water and vice versa.

In order. to explain thecooperationofj the apparatus. according to. the invention, details are shown onthefollowing-drawings, in which mean:

Fig, 1, a, side. view of. the floatable transport containeron .an under-carriage, I

Fig. 2, horizontal planof same,

Fig, 3,.front end, view of the transport container, partly in section,

Fig. 4 isa transverse central. sectionalview. of a modified form. of theinventionshowing aremovable. cover associatedwith the container.

Fig. 5"shows amethodof how to loadanddise charge the fioatab1etransport container on land,

Fig. 6. shows-a sectional detailjof the container,

Fig. '7 shows, the moment. of" transfer of. the containerfrom waterto rail,

Figs. Bib-C, thelongitudinal section of the water-channel for the. transfer of the transport container,

Fig. 9, crosssection of the water channel'as per Fig. 8, 7

Figs. 10a-d, the horizontalplan of the water channel as perv Fig. 8,

Fig.11, the horizontal. plan ofafioatofjfioatable. transport containers,

Fig. 12, longitudina1 section of same,

Eig, 13, horizontalplanof the wheel'house of a float. with four rows of containers,

Fig. 14, the. same for afloat with three, rows,

Fig. 15, a, longitudinal section of a Sea Oing freighter for the transport of floating containers,

Fig. 16, a horizontal'plan of, same,

Fig. 1'7, across section ofsame.

Eig. .18, a stern View of same,

Figs, 19-26; the, act of loadingv the seagoing freighter,

Fig. 27,.a1ongitudinal, section of, theloading do ck,

Fig, 28, a horizontal plan of same,

Fig. 29., a sectionof a lifting. device for floatable transport containers.

According to my, invention themethod of transfer of floatable. transport. containers. from rail or road:.to. water andvice versahasthe purpose of essentially simplifying and cheapening the rather complicated" and expensive methods used; up todate. The 'methods for-transfer of fioatable transport; containers or loadsfrom water to rail or roadyused up to date operatein such a way that the transport container or-1oads are lifted from the water by meansofcranes, transported laterally and then set downon-read-y vehicles. Viceversa the transport containersor loads are taken off. the vehicles by meansof cranes andbrought'down to water.

This well known methodis obviously complif cated and. expensive. As. the transport containers, have rather large. dimensions and a heavy Weight when they. are loaded the cranes must also be large and have a much higher capacity than ordinary cranes. Moreover, the method of transfer of floatable transport containers. used up to date usually necessitates quite verticalquais in order to bring the floatable transport container near to the crane.

The present invention puts an end' to the above mentioned disadvantages of the methods used up to date. According to my invention a vehicle for railor road transport moving on a downward slopedwaterway parallel'to the longitudinal axis of the floatable container passes under the fioatabl container insuch a way that when the vehicle moves on the subwaterway in upward direction the container is automatically set .upon the under-carriage of this vehicle. In case a floatable transport container is brought from railor road towater the vehicle loaded with the containernot stifliy tiedto the vehicle-will descend on the subwaterway untilthe buoyancy acting upon the floatable container is great enough to lift the container from the vehicle and to free. it for floating. It can be seen that. the rnethodaccording to my invention has the considerable advantagethat complicated and expensive cranes are avoided, furthermore the channelfor the, transportpontainers may be built in a considerably inexpensive way I with normal slopes adaptedto, the surfaceofthe ground:

In Fig.,1, thefioatable transport, container I is put on a, railway. under-carriage 3. The cross section of the container I, as shown in Figs. 3-5:, is nearly rectangular. The transportv container is constructed of. welded steel' plates and rein forced by. frames. Its length is subdivided into three. portions ofjrather equal size by two bull;- heads 4. The front faces, as shown at 5; are slopedor taperediinorder to facilitate the navi'- gation and toavoid' troubles during the railway transport.

The transport. container constructed as shown in Fig. 3 on the left part, has an inner sloping 6 by which the discharge of the container will be simplified as the goods in the container glide down the sloping 6 to the discharge opening when tilted on its longitudinal axis. The container as shown in Fig. 3 is open all along its upper surface so that the charging can be performed in the usual manner by pouring in. The opening 1 is completely surrounded by a headpiece attachment 8 in order to prevent water splashing into the container when heavily loaded.

In case the container is used for the transport of goods sensitive to water it is of advantage to choose a construction performance as per Fig. 4

in which the upper open surface of the container is shut by a removable cover 3 consisting of several parts and closing tightly. This cover 9 as shown in Fig. 6 to rest on angle irons l which are connected to the inner part of the walls of the container. The cover is held in this position by lashes i l which are screwed. to frames l2 and pass through corresponding slots l3 of the cover 9.

For the transport of liquids it is of advantage to provide an entirely closed container fitted with apparatus as generally used for filling and disi charging.

In Fig. the possibility of loading and discharging of the transport container is shown when the goods consist of cases, bundles, barrels, etc. which may be transported in any position. For this purpose the transport container will be tilted on a loading dock 24 and can then easily be loaded by piling up. After this the transport container will be re-tilted to its normal position on the under-carriage. The front faces of the container are each fitted with a heavy toothed wheel M the center of which lays on the longitudinal gravity axis of the container. The spokes are covered with a protective hood [5 which acts as a buffer when containers are tied together to a float. The purpose of the toothed wheels [4 is to lift the container from the vehicle by means of chains carried by cranes when arrived at the place of final discharge. The discharge is performed by tilting.

the container on its longitudinal axis.

As shown in Fig. 1 the transport container is put on the undercarriage 3 of the ralroad vehicle tted with two bogies l8 and ll. The length of the undercarriage is such that the transport container does not exceed the length of the vehicle. :3

As mentioned above the slopings 5 at the corners of the front faces of the transport container are mainly necessary for railroad transport as otherwise there will be a danger for the vehicles on the parallel rails when passing a curve due to the fact that the ends of the transport container extend into the space above the parallel track.

In order to prevent the floatable transport containers being displaced on the railway undercarriage when mounted thereon the undercarriage is fitted on both its ends with tapered pins l8 and i8 which fit into corresponding annulars and 2| fixed to the front faces of the transport container. Owing to this loose connection between the vehicle and the transport container this will be allowed to move only in upward direction.

In Fig. 7 the transfer of a fioatable container from the water surface to a railroad is shown in its main course. On the ground 22 of a waterway, a track 23 leads into deeper water at a certain small angle. Before the floatable container is pulled into the channel the under-carriage 3 will be run into the water to a depth allowing the floatable container l to be pulled over the undercarriage 3. As soon as the undercarriage 3 is drawn bacl; it approaches from underneath the floatable transport container I because of the slope of the subwaterway. The undercarriage 3 at first contacts the bottom of the floatable container with the tapered pin 19. Means may be provided to assure proper positioning of longitudinal axis of the vehicle and that of the floatable container, the tapered pin 19, when the carriage further moves toward land, slides in the middle of the lower side of the container until it fits into the eye shaped holder 2| at the end of the container. The mentioned pin l9 which will fit into the holder, at first little, then more, pulls the floatable container into lower water with the speed of the under-carriage 3. At last the vehicle 3 is driven upwards on the subwaterway to such a point that the lower side 25 of the floatable container lays on the upper side 26 of the railroad vehicle, at first at the higher end of the vehicle and later on, as the vehicle moves on at the whole length of the vehicle. At the lower end of the vehicle, not shown on this drawing, a corresponding pin l8 will fit automatically a holder 20 of the fioatable container, as can be seen from Fig. 2. After this the vehicle is drawn out of the water on to normal tracks.

Conversely when transferring a transport container from rail to water, the vehicle loaded with a transport container will run down a subwaterway until the buoyancy acting upon the container is strong enough to lift the container from the vehicle and to release it for swimming.

Fig. 8a shows a longitudinal section of the water channel as it is used for the performance of the method of transferring according to my invention. The water 21 fills the channel to a certain level, said channel being bound by slopes 28, and the bottom of the channel with the rails 23 ascends slowly until it reaches the water level at point 36. Fig. 9 shows the rails 3| on the ground of the water channel. The transport containers 1 are floatable just above the rails and are kept in the shown direction by special guides. These guides consist of several iron posts 32 rammed into the ground in equal distance, the posts being connected by wooden bars 33 at the water level. The floatable transport containers are conducted between the wooden bars with little play. The channel has no vertical quais but normal slopes 28 which eventually are adapted to the ground.

The distance between the bottom of the floatable container and the track depends on the water level and on the draught of the fioatable container. It is clear that the vehicle running down the subwaterway will move farther into the channel the heavier the fioatable container is loaded and the lower the water level is.

The horizontal plan of the transferring equipment as per Figs. lOu-d, shows once more the track 3!, the guides 33 and the slopes 28. Along part 28a of the slope a fioat 34 composed of a series of fioatable transport containers can be seen, the different transport containers of which have to be transferred to the railroad without cranes being used. As the float is combined of thirty-six floatable transport containers it is advisable to arrange eighteen vehicles coupled together on each of the two subwater tracks and then to pull eighteen floatable containers into the space between the guides 33. The transfer of the floatable containers to the different vehicles is performed in the way described above on the condition that the distance between one vehicle and the next and one container and the following is equal, so that the tapered pins [8 and 5. I Q-of the vehicles are able to fit the-correspondingy holders of the-transport container;

After the transfer of the--floata'ble'transport containers from rail or road to=water hasbeen finished" the different containershaving no individual driving and steeringequipment arecon-- nected to a float ofwhich a -horizontal-plan is shown in Fig. 11 and a longitudinal'sectionin Fig. 12. Theexample in Fig. 11 shows a float of thirty-six floatable containers-which will be able to transportxaitotal loadiofiabout320 tons of coal in which the capacitypfone individual container with optimum dimensionsis about 90 tons of: coal- The float is towed by a tug-boat 36 andis steered by. means of .theattached wheelihouse 31.. The pulling power of the tug-boat- 36. is transmitted-to the float by towing ropes 39in such away that each longitudinal row is kept together by only one rope: which is fastenedto eachcontainer by means of special clamps. The towing rope 38 running alongthe outer rows of the. float is led to a return pulley on the wheel house 3-? shown on Fig. 13 for a float of four rows and on Fig. l lfor a float of three rows. For

a four-row float the towing rope 38 is led over the return pulley 4i and for the three-row float itzis-ledioverthe smallerv return pulley 52:

Up to date the transshipment of goods from a lighter to a seagoing vessel in a harbour has been performed in such a way that the goods were grabbed out by suitable equipments and then emptied into the ships hold. This method of transshipment takes much time and the value of the goods is diminished by undesired grinding and crushing.

The present invention shows the structure of a new seagoing freighter which allows bulk goods to be more easily transferred from a lighter to a seagoing vessel. Moreover, the invention shows a method of performing the transshipment of bulk goods to a seagoing freighter built according to my invention. Using the freighter built and loaded according to my invention it is possible to perform the loading and discharge in a very short time without needing cranes, dredgers, etc. and without the goods being crushed.

The seagoing freighter 44 looks like a common freighter with the exception that the stern 44a is provided with a number of gates. In the ships hold are three horizontal between decks 45, 46, 41 extending over practically the whole of the length and width of the ship and only supported by a partition wall 48 in the middle of the ship. The decks are water tight and can be closed at the stern with bulkhead-like gates 49-54. The freighter is equipped with special ballast tanks 55 and 56 regulating the draught of the ship. Furthermore, according to my invention, the freighter is equipped with tanks 51, 58 for liquids or ballast as well as with tanks for fuel oil 59 and drinking water 60 and 6| between the double bottom.

Loading of a seagoing freighter with floatable transport containers which have been transferred from rail to water, as described above, may be performed without using cranes etc. in the following way: The lowest deck of the empty ship, as shown in Fig. 19, is filled with so much water that the floatable transport container can float into this deck after the stern gates 49 and 50 have been opened. When the gates 49 and 50 have been closed the water in the lowest deck is pumped up to the next deck 46 and simultaneously the ballast tanks 51 and BI are parhaving opened the stern gates 5| and-52; according'to Fig. 20, the floating containers now can: enter this deck. After the stern gates 54 and-.52 have been closed the water on the betweendecls; dt is pumpedup to deck 41 as described above;

1 and the-tanks 55'-6'i are filledup. with freightr or ballast. At last the between deck 41 is loaded; asma-y'be-seen atFig. 21,- after the stern gates: 53 and a 54 have b'eenopened; The ship is ready to sail; according to Fig. 22, when the stern gates 4 53 and54have been closed and the water onthe:

between=deck47 and eventually part of the dead freight-from theballasttanks 55 .and 56 has been pumped out.

It. is obvious that this method .of loading; issimple and takes little time and there is no injury: to' the goods.

Discharging the freighter is done the inverse way, i. e. the highest between deck i1 is discharged first.

Loadingof the seagoing freighter with empty floatable transport containers, as seen in Figs 23-26; takes place substantially the same man-- nerz'as-with filledcontainers. In order to have sufficient draughtofthe freighter itis, however; necessary to fill up the ballasttanks 55 and 5ft with water. After the loading is finished the ballast may be pumped out as per Fig. 26.

If the bulk goods are transported to the harbour by rail it is necessary to transfer the floatable containers from rail to water and then the loading of the freighter can be performed in the above described manner.

In order to take full advantage of the new transport methods and equipment, according to my invention, it is necessary to provide special discharge methods and plants at the final discharge yard and for the distribution to the consumers, as shown in Figs. 27-29. The floatable transport containers will be transferred on to railroad vehicles by means of a subwaterway and will then run to the discharge yard 65. At point 66 the vehicle loaded with the container is put under the trolley runway 51 of a crane 58. The crane 68 lifts the container 69 from the railway undercarriage 10 by means of the toothed wheels fixed to the outer faces of the container. The container is then moved sidewards and tilted on its longitudinal axis so that the goods, 1. e. coal, glide down on to the oblique discharge ramps ll-l4. The trucks [5 and 16 having entered the yard on street '1? in direction of the arrow, are placed by the lower side of the ramps 1| and 12 so that the goods may glide into the trucks. On the other side of the discharge yard vehicles on rails 78 and 19 having entered the yard on the track 80 may be driven along the ramps 13 and H to be loaded with goods gliding from the ramps to the vehicles. The entire discharging yard, according to my invention, needs only little expenses as the yard may be built with only few artificial structures. Discharging the floatable containers is performed very quickly and labour can be reduced considerably. Owing to the oblique ramps the loading of the distribution vehicles is automatical.

I have now above described my present invention on the lines of a preferred embodiment thereof but my invention is not limited in all its aspects to the mode of carrying it out as described and shown since the invention may be variously em- 7 bodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In an apparatus for loading and unloading a floatable container from a railway carriage, the combination of a track having an inclined portion submerged in the water, said floatable container arranged to be movably mounted on said carriage and automatically released therefrom when the carriage is submerged, said container having eyeshaped holders extending outwardly from opposite ends thereof, and said carriage having spaced upwardly projecting retaining members arranged to fit into said holders when the container is mounted on the carriage to prevent lateral displacement of the container but allow its upward removal therefrom, the parts being constructed and arranged so that when the floatable container is being transferred from the water to the carriage, the latter is first moved into the water to a depth to be positioned directly below the container and is then moved up the inclined track so that the retaining member on the raised end of the carriage engages the bottom of the container until it registers with the eye-shaped holder on the adjacent end of the carriage at which point the retaining member moves upwardly into the holder so as to insure the proper positioning of the container on the carriage, the retaining member on the opposite end of the carriage being movable into engagement with the adjacent holder as the 8 carriage is moved further upward on the inclined track so as to insure the container being firmly seated on the carriage as the latter is moved out of the water.

2. In an apparatus for loading and unloading a boat as called for in claim 1 in which the container is of substantially rectangular shape and has inclined end portions.

References Cited in the file Of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 210,051 Post Nov. 19, 1878 820,974 Hilpert May 22, 1906 895,278 Lettinger Aug. 4, 1908 933,331 Niedringhaus Sept. 7, 1909 986,153 Falvey Mar. 7, 1911 987,017 Robinson Mar. 14, 1911 1,026,444. Hunt May 14, 1912 1,032,271 Bransfield July 9, 1912 1,263,651 DAmico Apr. 23, 1918 1,267,956 Baeck May 28, 1918 2,134,352 Baer Oct. 15, 1938 2,231,138 Pugh Feb. 11, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 19,687 Germany Oct. 16, 1882 

